Re: very old horse question

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

You're right, alot of the older guys have less ability to really extract all
the nutrition from their feed, so alot of it just goes through them,
especially if they've lost teeth.  It varies alot between individuals.

The cup of extruded soy won't hurt, but with the alfalfa, it's unlikely that
protein deficiency is the source of the problem.  I'd also want to be
careful about loading too much protein onto an older horse that may
potentially have diminished renal function.  But, a cup a day is okay.  Just
don't go crazy with it.

A bag of equine senior a week isn't all that much, actually.  It's meant as
a complete feed, so at that rate, a bag every other day would be about
normal.

My suggestion would be to increase the amount of beet pulp and/or senior.
You can feed quite a lot of both to them, almost as exclusive feeds.  It's
really important that the beet pulp be well soaked for old guys---they just
don't have the teeth to chew pellets well enough, and swallowing pellets
whole is looking for big trouble.

You didn't mention what form of alfalfa or grass hay you're feeding, but
make sure it's as digestible as possible---not stemmy and tough.  Second or
third cutting alfalfa is going to be most digestible (fourth is even more
so, but that's dairy quality and just a bit too rich IMO); first cutting
grass hay is more digestible than later cuttings.  Or, you can feed pellets,
but again because of the teeth, soak it down into a nice sloppy mush.  Much
easier to eat, gets more water into them and doesn't require any teeth at
all.

For more calories, you can also try adding a bit of either vegetable oil to
the mash, or a cup or two of a stabilized rice bran, like Equi-Jewel,
Ultimate Finish, Natural Glo, one of those.  Make sure it's stabilized.
Most horses like it and it's a good source of calories.  As long as you
don't go crazy with the amounts (ie, more than about two pounds a day max),
your calcium-phosphorus ratios will be fine.  If you feed the Equi-Jewel,
you could feed a little more if you wanted to and the horse was doing well
on it.

The main concept is to consider the beet pulp, equine senior, rice bran and
any other soaked pellets as the primary source of nutrition; and the grass
hay mostly as something to goof around with.

Anyway, I've had pretty good luck putting and keeping weight onto the
fossils <g> with senior, *soaked* beet pulp, *soaked* alfalfa pellets and
rice bran.  Just make sure it's all well soaked together into a nice, big
sloppy gruel (did I mention soaking?).  Good luck.  :-)))

Susan G


----- Original Message -----
From: "heidi sowards" <ribbitttreefrog@yahoo.com>
To: <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 1:25 PM
Subject: RC: very old horse question


> Friends of mine have a 26+ year old arab gelding that was a
> rodeo horse. (Barrels, games, etc.) He is now a babysitter
> for 2 little girls. He's lost quite a few teeth, they have
> him on grass hay and alfalfa, & beet pulp & equine senior
> two times per day. He still is pretty gaunt looking (mostly
> swaybacked, but still underweight.) I suggested a cup or so
> of extruded soy mixed with the beet pulp. Any other
> suggestions? He goes through a bag of equine senior per
> week almost. Seemed like alot to me. Of course some
> probably just passes through him, what with the missing
> teeth and all.
>
> =====
> Heidi-aerc#M20935  /\_/\~    http://www.synjinarts.com
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